Station Compliance›FCC Watch

Nothing changed on the security rule. § 11.35(d) has been in force since September 29. This week brought no extension, no waiver and no enforcement action under it. There is still no fine on record for this rule, so treat any figure you see quoted as a guess.

Software EAS: who said what

The reply comments in the software-EAS proceeding are in, and they show where the arguments will be fought.

• NAB and 49 state broadcaster associations support allowing software EAS, and NAB now frames the question as how to implement it, not whether to. The state associations asked to keep the existing 60-day window to repair or replace failed EAS gear, rather than the 72 hours proposed for software, because diagnosing a fault can involve several vendors.
• Sage Alerting Systems argued software and standalone units should meet the same protocol standards, with no new certification tier or special security testing, and opposed a minimum phase-in period.
• Digital Alert Systems asked the FCC to settle certification boundaries before authorizing software. NAB pushed back on that.

Earlier in the proceeding, iHeartMedia, NPR and New York Public Radio filed in support. There is no FCC timetable for a decision. What the proposal covers.

For a station today this changes nothing. Whatever the FCC decides, a software encoder/decoder will sit on your network, so the password and firewall work the security rule requires now is the same work it will rely on later.

Equipment

No new firmware or security advisories from the major EAS, codec or transmitter makers this week, and no reported compromise of broadcast equipment.

What is next

Form One is due in three and a half weeks. It is the filing that tells the FCC what gear you run and what you monitor, so it is a natural moment to check the gear itself.